Laura Long previously lived at McDonald Observatory in far west Texas with her husband, an astronomer. In December 2013, after years of research, she published The Eye of Caroline Herschel: A Life in Poems, a chapbook from Finishing Line Press. This collection includes the poems in Astropoetica and also poems nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize. Her first novel, Out of Peel Tree, was published in April 2014. She teaches at Lynchburg College.